Andrew's concerns over Metal Theft in the Constituency

07 November 2011

Andrew has received a number of letters regarding the recent theft of the BT Cable in Barrington. Andrew has been in long discussions with both BT and the Cambridgeshire Constabulary to prevent such an attack occurring in the future.

‘I understand the frustration my constituents must be feeling and I promise to do my utmost in helping BT and the Cambridgeshire Constabulary secure measures to protect the plant in Barrington. BT is also meeting with Police forces to discuss a coordinated multi-force approach to combating the problem, especially along the A10 corridor.’

In general, BT’s response to the problem of cable theft includes:
• The establishment of a dedicated Metal Theft Task Force
• Increasing our deployment of preventative measures in the network to bring down the level of attacks, such as implementing an enhanced level of plant plate security on key access points to make the network as difficult as possible to break into
• Gathering intelligence and sharing this with law enforcement agencies to target criminals, as well as local initiatives where cable thieves have struck, such as undertaking meetings and presentations with local Police in order to highlight the issue and improve collaboration
• Disrupting the market for stolen metal by working with scrap metal dealerships
• Lobbying Government for policy changes related to the metal recycling industry and its enforcement
• Working with Crime stoppers to engage members of the public in recently targeted areas and to encourage them to report any relevant information that they have anonymously to Crime stoppers specially trained staff
• Deploying Smart Water® to a number of points in the network including cable, tools and other equipment. Smart water® can be used to forensically ‘tag’ metal thieves allowing police to irrefutably identify where any stolen items have come from

I have spoken with Baroness Browning at the Home Office making her aware of the situation in Barrington and asking for a further push to be made in Government to prevent such attacks occurring in the future.